Guantanamo press restrictions increase
By The Associated Press
09.16.02
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The detention mission is expanding at this desolate U.S. outpost and so are restrictions on the media covering 598 detainees suspected of terrorism at Camp Delta.
Interviews with U.S. military personnel are being monitored by media escorts, who accompany journalists to most places on the base, including bathrooms and vending machines. The media also has been barred from speaking without authorization to civilians working on the base.
"During times of war, we give up certain rights," Lt. Col. Joe Hoey, the spokesman for the detention mission, said on Sept. 13.
Before a four-day media trip to cover Sept. 11 ceremonies on the remote U.S. base in eastern Cuba, American and foreign journalists were told they would be allowed to photograph services but were then barred from filming or taking pictures.
The military said news coverage would "interfere with the spirituality of events."
On Sept. 11, members of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service searched the room of an Italian film crew after "observing violations of ground rules," said Maj. Lee Reynolds, a military spokesman.
The investigation service handles law enforcement on naval bases and investigates any criminal activity, including counterintelligence and counterterrorism activity.
The Rome-based RAI crew was told it could not take pictures of the sea, about 500 meters (yards) from Camp Delta. Before the detainees were moved from Camp X-ray to Delta, crews were allowed to shoot panoramic views.
The crew, which said it had no plans to transmit pictures of the sea or prison, said it gave the military two tapes. Afterward, the crew was prohibited from going to the windward side of the base where the detainees are held.
"These restrictions come as the U.S. administration considers going to war in Iraq and considers how much it can monitor," Regis Bourgeat said in a telephone interview from the Paris headquarters of Reporters Sans Frontieres, or Reporters Without Borders. "And these types of restrictions are occurring in a country that prides itself on freedoms."
Hoey said journalists had to be monitored to prevent military personnel from jeopardizing operational security and to ensure accuracy.
But when the first detainees arrived in Guantanamo in January, journalists were allowed to interview people without military supervision and were able to see the detainees from a distance. Now, detainees are shielded from journalists by a green screen, which authorities say is to protect detainees, in line with the Geneva Conventions.
"The earlier pictures that we saw of the detainees in Guantanamo painted the U.S. authorities in a really bad light," Bourgeat said. "I don't think they want to have the same thing happen."
Department of Defense pictures of some the first arrivals showed detainees kneeling, shackled and blinded by goggles — images that stirred an international outcry, particularly in Britain, where headlines read "Tortured."
The camp currently has room for 612 detainees but construction crews are building another 204 cells. Officials say there could eventually be about 2,000 cells.